Deborah Sampson

“I am indeed willing to acknowledge what I have done, an error and presumption…I swerved from the accustomed flowery path of female delicacy, to walk upon the heroic precipice of feminine perdition!”

 

Deborah Sampson (1760 – 1827) was a real life Mulan! In commemoration of July 4^th, today seems a good day to share her story! She was a Massachusetts woman who disguised herself as a man in order to serve in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. She is one of a small number of women with a documented record of military combat experience in that war. She served 17 months in the army under the name "Robert Shirtliff"  of Uxbridge, Massachusetts, was wounded in 1782, and was honorably discharged at West Point, New York, in 1783.

Deborah Sampson was born into a poor family of seven children. Her father abandoned her family and knocked someone else up (although his friends told them he was “lost at sea”). Her abandoned mother was unable to provide for all her children and had to place them in households of friends or family (a common practice at this time). Sampson was placed in the home of a maternal relative and after her mother’s death was placed with a Reverend’s widow, who taught Deborah to read the Bible – a luxury not afforded to many girls of that class at that time.  

Upon the widow's death, Sampson was sent to work as an indentured servant from 1770 to 1778. Although treated well, her master forbade the education of women and thus she was not sent to school like the male servants. Not to be dissuaded, Sampson learnt from Thomas's sons, who shared their school work with her. Clearly, this was enough to give her a decent education as after her time had been served she made her living as a teacher – as well as a highly skilled weaver, woodworker, and mechanic, the wares from which she was able to sell for extra income. Despite his sexism, Deborah was inspired by her master’s strong patriotism, explaining her later actions.

Sampson was tall for her day – around 9 inches above average for a woman of the time and 3 inches taller than the average man. Her biographer, Hermann Mann, who knew her personally for many years, implied that she was not thin, had very small breasts that were easily disguised and that "the features of her face are regular; but not what a physiognomist would term the most beautiful."  Charming. However, this worked to her advantage as her appearance — tall, broad, strong, and not delicately feminine — contributed to her success at pretending to be a man.

In early 1782, Sampson wore men's clothes and enlisted in an army unit under the name Timothy Thayer. However, she was recognised as a woman by a local and forced to abandon her mission, and repay the money the army had paid her. She was also disowned by her church, who forbid the community to associate with her. However, in May she travelled to a nearby town where no one knew her. This time she enlisted under the name "Robert Shirtliff" (which is exactly what she didn’t want the to do, I imagine!) Here she encountered no issues and joined the Light Infantry Company of the 4th Massachusetts Regiment, under the command of Captain George Webb (1740–1825). This comprised elite troops, specially picked because they were taller and stronger than average soldiers. Their job was to provide rapid flank coverage for advancing regiments, as well as rearguard and forward reconnaissance duties for units on the move. This was a wise move which safeguarded her because no one was likely to look for a woman among soldiers who were specially chosen for their above average size and superior physical ability.

As part of this unit, Sampson fought in several skirmishes. During her first battle in July 1782, she took two musket balls in her thigh and sustained a cut on her forehead. She begged her fellow soldiers not take her to a doctor out of fear her sex would be discovered, but they didn’t listen and took her to hospital. Allowing a doctor to treat her head, she fled before he could attend to her leg. Bravely, she removed one of the balls herself with a penknife and stitched her wounds with a sewing needle. She was unable to reach the second musket ball and carried it in her leg for the rest of her life, never fully recovering from the injury. 

The war was thought to be over following the Battle of Yorktown, but since there was no official peace treaty, the Continental Army remained in uniform. In June 24, soldiers under Paterson were sent to Philadelphia to quell a rebellion of American soldiers who were protesting delays in receiving their pay and discharges. During the summer of 1783, Sampson became ill in Philadelphia and was cared for by Doctor Barnabas Binney (1751–1787). He discovered her true sex when he removed her clothes to treat her and discovered her bound breasts. Amazingly, he kept his discovery to himself and he took her to his house to be cared for by his wife, daughters, and nurses.

In September 1783, following the signing of the Treaty of Paris, Dr. Binney asked Sampson to deliver a note to General Paterson, which she correctly assumed would reveal her gender. Nevertheless, she delivered the note.  In other cases, women who pretended to be men to serve in the army were reprimanded, but Paterson gave her a discharge, a note with some words of advice, and enough money to travel home. Remarkably, instead of being punished, she was honorably discharged in October 25, 1783, after a year and a half of service.

Deborah Sampson was married a farmer  in Massachusetts in April 1785. She and her husband, Benjamin Gannett, had three children and adopted an orphan. They inherited the family farm, but it was not productive land and they struggled for money. In January 1792, Sampson petitioned the Massachusetts State Legislature for pay which the army had withheld from her because she was a woman. The legislature granted her petition and Governor John Hancock signed it. The legislature awarded her 34 pounds plus interest back to her discharge in 1783. Just shows, if you don’t ask, you don’t get!

In 1802, Sampson began touring her local area giving lectures about her wartime service. This proved to be a highly entertaing and surprising show for the audience. She began by extolling the virtues of traditional gender roles for women, before leaving the stage and returning in her uniform to perform a complicated and physically taxing military drill and ceremony routine.  She performed both to earn money and to justify her enlistment, but even with these speaking engagements she and her family remained low on funds, having to rely on loans from family and friends. One such friend, Paul Revere, frequently wrote to the government on her behalf, asking that she be awarded a pension for her military service and the wounds she suffered during it – something which had never been requested for a woman before. In 1804 he wrote:

"I have been induced to enquire her situation, and character, since she quit the male habit, and soldiers uniform; for the more decent apparel of her own gender...humanity and justice obliges me to say, that every person with whom I have conversed about her, and it is not a few, speak of her as a woman with handsome talents, good morals, a dutiful wife, and an affectionate parent." 

His petition was successful and in March 1805, Congress approved the request and placed Sampson on the Massachusetts Invalid Pension Roll.

On February 22, 1806, Sampson wrote once more to Revere requesting a loan of ten dollars: "My own indisposition and that of my sons causes me again to solicit your goodness in our favor though I, with Gratitude, confess it rouses every tender feeling and I blush at the thought of receiving ninety and nine good turns as it were—my circumstances require that I should ask the hundredth." He sent the ten dollars.

In 1809, she again petitioned Congress, asking that her pension as an invalid soldier be backdated to start from her discharge in 1783. She was denied, but successful in the next decade. In 1816, she was awarded a  pension of $76.80 a year (over $1,100  dollars today). This allowed her to repay her loan, and improve the farm.

“The history of the Revolution furnished no other similar example of female heroism, fidelity and courage’.

Sampson died of yellow fever at the age of 66 in 1827. After her death, her husband again petitioned Congress for pay as the spouse of a soldier. Although the couple was not married at the time of her service, in 1837 the committee concluded that the her unique status required acknowledgement. He was awarded the money, though he died before receiving it.

When one things of the American Revolution, one thinks of Hamilton, Washington, and Jefferson, and all the other brave young men who stood up and fought for their nation’s independence. However, women were just as affected by patriotic fervour and just as affected by war. Sampson demonstrated remarkable bravery in enlisting and risking her life for her country. Her refusal to take no for an answer in regards to her education, her financial independence from men, and to her right to a pension befitting her service are both inspiring, and I truly think she should be regarded as a nationalist hero alongside the founding fathers. The respect that she was able to command in her comrades, commanding officers, community, and from her government regardless of her deciept is a testament to the strength of her character and feminism. The ide that her husband lived from her riches rather than the other way is also a pleasant inverting of gender stereotypes from this time (that persist today). So happy July 4^th to any of my American followers, but spare a thought for this forgotten hero of the Revolution!